Reviews & Articles

Captions:
1.-4. Installation photographs of Lanwei - an exhibition by anothermountainman in Wong Chuk Hang Gallery.

(中文翻譯請往下看 Please scroll down to read the Chinese translation.)


Frightening the office girls

Impermanence, transition, evolution and changes in the physical state of deteriorating objects are a common focus of anothermountainman’s artwork.

Notorious - as it has previously been exhibited, shocking viewers at the time, some climbing inside to try - is his design for a coffin in the guise of a long and comfortable sofa that he currently uses in his living room. At a future date this special sarcophagus will be opened and the hollow base converted into an equally comfortable padded coffin in which the artist himself will lie - when his own, present lifetime has ended.

anothermountainman’s photography covers similar ground, including photographing dead flowers; black tyre skids on roads; and empty notice-boards in abandoned offices whose occupants are no longer there.

All are silent markings and depict aspects of passages of the past.

And then you see anothermountainman’s photographs of buildings that have never been completed, buildings never formally occupied, never topped off - labelled with the disdainful, derogatory tag of lan wei. 1

These abandoned buildings are possibly the result of actions by a too-cocky property developer or investor who chose the wrong moment. It may have been pure stupidity.

“Greed, most likely.”

Then a missed payment, then a few more missed. Credit withheld; a mortgagee calling in the loan. In a nearby office: telephones not answered. Final deliveries and the spat echo of “cash or nothing.” The drivers return with their load – “shit!” the accounts man says, sitting down the payment-chain understanding the bankrupt circumstances. The slashing of red paint on doors, the work of upset creditors and their street thugs, frightens the office girls.

Construction terminated, aborted, cut off.

“Pack your tools, boys – this site’s stuffed.”

The concrete tower is leftover for the birds, and their crapped seeds; soon-seedling, soon-sapling, rooted, finding refuge or just a spot, in a high-rise crack. 

The buildings are naked, grimy, veined: wan citadels sitting on the horizon or the end of a street. Lan wei.

And then anothermountainman imagines other scenes:

Cosy literati spaces with wizened men, dutiful women, bonsai and views overlooking a fertile and populated, if hazy, valley.

There’s also a cinema line-up of characters: Mao, the requisite manga schoolgirl, Chinese opera and period drama. The stage around Disney castle rocket turrets and skeletal steel rusting hangars; the action is choreographed swordplay in a mockery of costumes. The exotica of opposites: grey lan wei and bright dreamy fantasy folk.

The lan wei buildings are homes too; adorned with hanging washing, communal conviviality and an outdoor pool table for recreation. Housing immigrant rural workers, who lack the all-important urban hukou permits that allow legal residence and access to services, schooling and housing in cities. Moving from the countryside changes you anyway – and there are times of flux and danger, rough violence and jealousy, despair and unfairness, unemployment and casual sodden work, but…

“…Don't look back or you'll turn to stone;

look around before your life is overgrown with concrete slabs.

On your back the searching eyes that stab between chintz curtains, glinting,

but never owning to a name...

like the inmates of asylums

all the citizens are contagiously insane....” 2

Footnotes:
1. For a detailed explanation of anothermountainman/Stanley Wong Ping Pui’s art and the term ‘lan wei’, see John Batten, Hong Kong/China Photographers: anothermountainman, 2008.
2. Peter Hammill, “Modern”, from the album The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, 1974. To listen to the song - see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjYd5ZGkpmc

Exhibition: Lanwei – anothermountainman (all images can be viewed here)
Date: 7.10. – 11.11.2012
Venue: Blindspot Gallery & Blindspot Annex

Chinese translation courtesy of Blindspot Gallery

嚇壞了OL

衰敗中的物質的短暫性、過渡性、革新和物理狀態改變是又一山人作品中的共同關注。

他的作品惡名昭彰──在以前展覽中，作品曾驚嚇觀眾，雖然之後他們有些會爬進作品內一嘗其滋味──那是他設計的，一張偽裝成長而舒適沙發的棺材，沙發現在正放在他的起居室內，但在未來，這副特別的棺木將被打開，中空的底部會變型成一個有軟墊，蠻舒服的棺材，在藝術家現世生命將盡之時，供他自己所用。

又一山人的攝影也有類似的基調，例如拍攝死去的花朵、路上黑色的車胎痕、廢置辦公室中的空白告示板。

它們全部都是沉默寡言的刻記，並時光微塵之軌跡。

然後，你看到又一山人拍攝建築的相片，未完成的、未封頂的，未被佔有過的；未能擺脫「爛尾」這個輕蔑名號的所有樓宇。1

這些荒廢的樓宇，或許是對房地產太有信心的建造商或投資者選擇在錯誤時機投資的結果，又或者是出於純粹的愚蠢。

「大概是貪婪。」

然後，一次欠交供款，然後更多次；信貸被中止，貸款人打電話來追數；辦公室電話從此沒人接聽；最後通諜和粗言辱罵襲來──「欠債還錢！」，追債未竟的司機也氣得口出惡言；會計師說著有關一串的供款和破產的情況；門口被潑上紅漆；失落的貸款人和追債的小混混，正在恐嚇著辦公室的OL。

工程中止了，被放棄了。

「收拾包袱走吧，這地方是廢的。」

 這石屎大廈只剩給雀鳥和牠們拋下的種子；很快地，長出幼苗，長成幼樹，生根，在這高樓的裂縫中找地方落腳。

 這些大廈光禿禿、污穢、破裂，如同蒼白的堡壘座落在地平線，或街道的盡頭──這就是爛尾樓。

 之後，又一山人想像出其他的情境：

愜意的文人空間內住著皺紋斑斑的男人，也有忠於職守的女人，放置著日式盆景盆栽，看著一個土地肥沃、人口豐碩的山谷的風景，但景色朦朧。

這裡也有電影般的演員陣容：毛澤東、那必不可少的動漫學生妹、京劇演員等。在迪士尼堡壘和發鏽的飛機棚外的舞台，在精心設計安排下，演員穿著可笑的服裝上演一場針鋒相對的戲。這兩者是異國風情的兩個極端──灰色爛尾樓與燦爛的夢幻傳說。

這些爛尾樓也是家園：洗衣和晾衣的活動讓這裡重獲生氣；飲宴交際和桌球枱讓這裡充滿娛樂；這裡也住進了外省勞工，他們沒有戶籍讓他們在城市內合法居住、上班、上學。但是，由鄉郊移民至這裡，總會令他們改變。然後，這裡有變遷和危機、暴力和妒忌、絕望與不公平、失業與無聊的工作，但是...

「……別要向後看，不然你就會被變作石頭，

在你的生活被石屎森林所包圍之前，請留意四周，

你背後，正是看穿了碎花窗簾的搜尋的雙眼，

閃爍著，

但從不屬於任何名字……

就像精神病院的院友，

所有人都蔓延著瘋狂……」2

註：
1. 有關又一山人／黃炳培的作品及爛尾的詳細解釋，請看2008年約翰．百德編著的《Hong Kong/China Photographers: anothermountainman》。
2. 彼得．漢米爾，歌曲《現代》，出自專輯《靜默的角落與空洞的舞台》，1974。